TRIPOLI: NATO said Friday its warplanes hit eight vessels of Muammar Gaddafi's navy, after US President Barack Obama predicted the veteran Libyan strongman would “inevitably” leave or be forced from power. The authorities in Tripoli slammed the US president's comments as “delusional,” while strongly denying reports that Gaddafi's wife and daughter had fled to Tunisia and that Oil Minister Shukri Ghanem had defected. “NATO and coalition air assets continued their precision air strikes against pro-Gaddafi regime forces overnight with a coordinated strike against pro-Gaddafi forces in the ports of Tripoli, Al-Khums and Sirte,” the Western alliance said. Fresh explosions were heard in the Libyan capital early Friday, hours after the air strikes targeted the city's port, with a ship still ablaze from the raid. Harding insisted that all of the targets hit were military but Libyan government spokesman Mussa Ibrahim accused the Western alliance of seeking to scare international shipping firms into steering clear of government-held ports. “Whatever the ship that has been hit, it is clearly a message sent by NATO to the international maritime companies not to send any more vessels to Libya,” Ibrahim told reporters in Tripoli. British aircraft targeted Al-Khums, the nearest naval base under the control of Gaddafi forces to the rebel-held city of Misrata, Britain's defence staff spokesman Major General John Lorimer said. “As well as hitting two corvettes in the harbor, the Royal Air Force Tornados successfully targeted a facility in the dockyard constructing fast inflatable boats, which Libyan forces have used several times in their efforts to mine Misrata and attack vessels in the area,” Lorimer said. “The destruction last night of the facility and a significant stockpile of the boats will reduce the regime's ability to sustain such tactics,” he added. In Tripoli, the government spokesman described as “delusional” Obama's prediction in a keynote speech on US Middle East policy Thursday of the veteran Libyan leader's inevitable departure. “Obama is still delusional – he believes the lies that his own government and own media spread around the world,” Ibrahim said. “It's not Obama who decides whether Muammar Gaddafi leaves Libya or not. It's the Libyan people who decide their future,” he added. In a major speech responding to the protest movements sweeping the Arab world, Obama said: “Time is working against Gaddafi. “He does not have control over his country. The opposition has organized a legitimate and credible interim council,” Obama said of the rebels' National Transitional Council based in their eastern stronghold of Benghazi. “And when Gaddafi inevitably leaves or is forced from power, decades of provocation will come to an end, and the transition to a democratic Libya can proceed.” – Agence France-Presse Caption:Smoke and flames pour from the Libyan Navy frigate Al-Ghardabia after it was hit during an airstrike by Tornado bombers of Britain's Royal Air Force on the port area of Tripoli, in the early hours of Friday. NATO confirmed that its warplanes targeted the vessels and accused Libya of using its ships in the escalating conflict, including attempts to mine the harbor in Misrata. (AP photo) __
